Friday, August 17, 2007

Man, it's been a while since I really really got into the code of URumble. Reasons to stay away from it for now are more psychological than programming, so I'll stay away from these for now.

However, the good news is I did not forget my URumble codebase, it's easy to get back onto the horse and easy to recall all class structures, all connection between classes, files, libraries. Just awesome, better than I expect from myself.

As a proof, I was able to implement a whole new gun: laser in a just a few hours, and then add a graphical effect for it within 3 hours - and this is while still being bothered by external noises. (Why does a world has to exist while I code? Geez.)

Here's a screenshot of a laser in effect, and you can even see some consoles behind it that shows some details behind the scenes, and the development environment I usually have. Instrumental, calm, positive music is a must, of course.

There are some really Cool things behind this gun. One is that I have developed an entire XML framework around vehicles. Now, guns can be assigned via XML text files without having to edit the code. This is very important, since it allows for faster development, since I don't need to worry about various guns setups while I code new features.

It took some effort and thinking to create a good XML structure for that. I don't think I nailed it yet. But it is definitely good enough right now, and thus it is perfect within the context of current time. Tomorrow I may have to add something else, and thus it won't be perfect anymore, but that's the way it ought to be developed: "just right for now."